It was time to celebrate for the Kandy
rugby fans as Trinity took the Bradby Shield yet for
another year with a 26-5 win over Royal in the second
leg played at the Bogambara Stadium last Saturday.

With Royal playing in fits and starts,
Trinity simply took control of the game in amazing fashion
to drive home the truth that they were the better of
the two contestants by a wide margin. Trinity also won
the first leg of the Bradby 21-10 at the Royal Sports
Complex and that game was a closer contest in spite
of the score-line suggests of another fare.

A Trinity player leaves the rest
of the pack and off to another move - Pix Gemunu
Wellage.

Glen Van Langenberg, Trinity rugby
skipper in 1966, who was the chief guest have derived
a lot of pleasure in handing over the Bradby Shield
to Trinity as he himself led Trinity to victory over
Royal in the Bradby Shield games way back in 1966.

As a reward the Trinity team will
be embarking on a tour of Auckland which they left on
Wednesday. This tour has been arranged by Trinity old
boys with the assistance of Trinity’s New Zealand
coach Nigel Kroner.

Royal showed signs of making a match
of it during the early stages. These attempts, however,
fell on the way side when their center Dilshan Senanayake
was injured and was carried out of the field. Royal
had two golden opportunities of scoring and perhaps
to take the lead in the match but Sandaruwan Gamage
missed two easy penalties, which were within kicking
range.

Trinity took control in gallant fashion
when Kosala Tissera scored an unconverted try. With
that try Trinity shot into a lead that the Royalists
were never able to overtake.

A few minutes later Trinity rubbed
salt into the Royal wound by scoring another try by
Senaratne. Trinity led 14-0 at the breather.

On resumption Royal showed signs of
putting up stiff resistance when Bilal Hassan scored
a neat try. This cut Trinity’s lead to 5-15.

A few minutes later Trinity scored
a natty try through Kosala Tissera once again. The move
for this try was set up by play maker Sean Wanigasekera.
Trinity led 21-5 at this stage and they were right on
top of the game with the Bradby sure of remaining at
Trinity. Just to make sure that the win was no flash
in the pan, Trinity scored again to take their tally
to 26 and Royal 5.